Data Analysis and Your Content Marketing

Everyone loves to love data. In the digital marketing world, data’s become like God was to folks in the Middle Ages.

However so many content marketing programs don’t really use analytics to even a modicum of full capacity. For small to medium sized operations getting the damn content produced, optimized and shared takes enough effort. Leveraging data and adjusting the content program is the activity we all know should happen, but often doesn’t (like Saturday morning yoga after a big night of drinking).

At this agency, we’re as guilty as you.

However with a majority of marketers planning to increase their content marketing budget by as much as 60%, it’s important to consider how data impacts an organization’s content marketing .

Here are some ways by which you can put data analysis at the heart of your content marketing strategy and reap gains.

Study

Obvious, yes? So do it. If you’re putting money into content marketing, I’ll assume you have analytics software – whether a free program like Google or a paid system like Hubspot. One good technique to ensure the data from these programs gets its due is to institutionalize a regular report or weekly meeting re analytics. Also, try to group pieces of content – everything from blog posts, to ebooks, to social media posts to emails – into big buckets so you can see what’s resonating. Further, look at what posting times are driving KPIs like leads, open rates, and engagement. Start big and drill down.

Check out your competitors’ content

While you may not have access to competitors’ proprietary data, you can still dissect their content and publishing strategies for some valuable insights. By understanding what types of content your competitors create, you can see how your performance measures up. This process typically also helps you generate new content ideas. Paid programs like Hubspot have strong competitor analysis tools, so consider these.

Analyze guest posts and external content

It also pays to track content you publish on platforms other than your own. Track exactly the same metrics as you did for your content on your own channels. If you are publishing for the benefit of SEO, you may also study other metrics such as page rank, domain authority etc.

Audience profiling on social media

As you know, a whack of consumer interaction takes place on social media. I won’t waste time telling you that you must pay close attention to your social data (since everyone knows that). I will say that you should pay close attention to profiling your audience on social media. Your content’s consumers may change based on the platforms you’re organization’s on – in other words you might be speaking to a primarily female audience on Pinterest and more men somewhere else. Using audience profiling tools, you can also gain a deeper insight into the minds of the readers you are engaging with and build better content.